The emergence of Bengali Dalit literature: canonizing impulses revisited

This article critically examines the recent scholarly drive to canonize Bengali Dalit literature, interrogating the epistemic conditions that frame this process. While the impulse to establish a distinct literary canon for Bengali Dalit writing seeks to affirm marginalized voices, this study argues that such efforts often internalize ethno-linguistic frameworks and territorial paradigms that obscure the fluidity and heterogeneity of Dalit literary expressions. By revisiting key scholarly discourses, this article highlights how the classification of certain Dalit writings as 'Bengali' is shaped more by prevailing epistemes that reinforce border thinking than any literary criteria as such. Rather than dismissing the canon outright, this article calls for a reorientation of the questions asked of Bengali Dalit literature – shifting the focus from ethnized identity markers to the literary sensibilities and epistemic ruptures generated by the specific coupling of 'Bengali(ness)' and 'Dalit(ness)' as categories. Ultimately, this article contributes to broader discussions on canonization, literary historiography, and the politics of knowledge production, urging a reconsideration of how we conceptualize literary canons beyond the constraints of linguistic and territorial nationalism.